In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack.

The European Union argues that we should be subject to rules of the club that we have left.

The precondition is the level playing field.

We can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives.

But if there is not a deal, we still need the Irish protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain. protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain.

Hello and welcome to Brexit Republic, RTE's podcast on Brexit.

I'm Tony Connolly, RTE's Europe editor in Brussels.

I'm Sean Wheeler and Artemise London correspondent in Westminster.

And I'm Colom O'Monghain, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor, normally in Dublin, but currently at home in Kildare. Each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments in

Brussels, London and in Dublin. This week, the fallout from Boris Johnson's internal market bill

deepens with a growing rebellion in the House of Commons,

fury in Brussels at Johnson's apparent suggestion that the EU was threatening to starve Northern Ireland

and a frosty welcome in America for the Foreign Secretary Dominic Rab.

Undeterred, the Prime Minister is pressing ahead with the bill, but with an attempt to buy off rebels

who are increasingly concerned that

it breaches international law. We'll assess what Johnson has in mind and we'll look more closely

at those claims that the EU could impose some kind of food blockade on Northern Ireland. Tony,

to you first, where did they originate and how have they gone down in Brussels? This issue first came up when Boris Johnson wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph,

which appeared last Saturday morning, saying that the EU was threatening to have an irrational interpretation

or extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland Protocol and was in effect threatening to prevent food going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

...